The Women's World Chess Championship 2008 took place from August 28, 2008 to September 18 in

Nalchik Nalchik (, ; ; ) is the capital city of Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia, situated at an altitude of in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains; about northwest of Beslan (Beslan is in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania). It covers an area of ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It was won by

Alexandra Kosteniuk Alexandra Konstantinovna Kosteniuk (; born 23 April 1984) is a Russian and Swiss chess grandmaster who was the Women's World Chess Champion from 2008 to 2010 and Women's World Rapid Chess Champion in 2021. She was European women's champion ...

, who beat Hou Yifan in the final by 2½ to 1½. For the fifth time, the championship took the form of a 64-player knock-out tournament.

Participants

Players were seeded by their

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess or esports. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American chess master and physics professor. The Elo system wa ...

s (July 2008 list), except that defending champion Xu Yuhua was the no. 1 seed.

Qualification paths

*WC: Women's World Champion and semi-finalists of the Women's World Chess Championship 2006 (3) *J06 and J07: World Junior Champions 2006 and 2007 *R: Rating (average of the FIDE rating lists of July 2006 and January 2007) (6) *E06 and E07: European Individual Chess Championships 2006 and 2007 (28) *AM: American Continental Chess Championship 2007 (2) *AS: Asian Chess Championship 2007 (4) *AF: African Chess Championship 2007 (3) * Z2.1 (3), Z2.3, Z2.4, Z2.5, Z3.1, Z3.2, Z3.3, Z3.4, Z3.5 (4): Zonal tournaments *PN:

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

President nominee (2)

Absentees

The world's no. 1 female player (and 22nd overall), Judit Polgár, never competed for the Women's World Championship and did not play this time either. World no. 3 and ex-champion, Xie Jun, had played little chess in recent years (four rated games since 2005) and also did not appear. Also 2006 World Championship's runner-up Alisa Galliamova didn't participate. Other absentees from the top 20 were Kateryna Lahno (ranked 12th), ex-champion Zhu Chen (15th) and Elina Danielian (16 th). Some players refused to go to Nalchik. In their letters to FIDE, Canadian Natalia Khoudgarian and American

Irina Krush Irina Borisivna Krush (; born December 24, 1983) is an American chess Grandmaster. She is the only woman to earn the GM title while playing for the United States. Krush is an eight-time U.S. Women's Champion and a two-time Women's American Cu ...

both cited the general safety in the region of

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...

. More players protested after the start of the 2008 South Ossetia war. On 12 August 2008, six Georgian players published an open letter asking to move the Championship to a safer place, which was endorsed by several other players (

Monika Soćko Monika Soćko (née Bobrowska; born 24 March 1978) is a Polish chess player who holds the FIDE titles of Grandmaster (GM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She won the Polish women's chess championship eight times (in 1995, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2013 ...

, Irina Krush, Iweta Rajlich, Ketino Kachiani-Gersinska, Tea Bosboom-Lanchava, Claudia Amura, and Marie Sebag). On 15 August, the Chess Federation of Georgia published an open letter stating that the Georgian players will not participate in the Championship unless it is moved to another country. Argentinian Claudia Amura, whose opponent in the first round is Georgian Lela Javakhishvili, also published a letter to FIDE asking for the Championship to be moved. The FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov published two letters in reply, on 13 August and 19 August. In his letters, he confirmed that the Championship would be held in Nalchik, appealed to everyone not to mix politics and sport, and stated that the organizers provided all the necessary security. This was seconded by Boris Kutin, president of the European Chess Union, and Arsen Kanokov, president of Kabardino-Balkaria and the chairman of the organizing committee. On 21 August, Ilyumzhinov published a letter to Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili asking him to let Georgian players participate. A total of 11 players did not arrive at the Championship. Besides the six Georgian players (

Maia Chiburdanidze Maia Chiburdanidze ( ka, მაია ჩიბურდანიძე; born 17 January 1961) is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. She is the sixth Women's World Chess Champion, a title she held from 1978 to 1991, and was the youngest one until ...

, Lela Javakhishvili, Maia Lomineishvili, Nino Khurtsidze, Sopiko Khukhashvili, and Sopio Gvetadze), these were Marie Sebag (France), Irina Krush (United States), Ekaterina Korbut (Russia), Tea Bosboom-Lanchava (Netherlands), and Karen Zapata (Peru).

Tournament format

The Championship was conducted as a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

with 64 players and six rounds. In each encounter, players played two games at normal time controls (90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move from move one). If the score after two games was level, the tie-break was played. In the tie-break, two rapid games were played (25 minutes for the game, with addition of 10 seconds after each move). If the score was level after the rapid games, two blitz games were played (5 minutes for the game, with addition of 10 seconds after each move). If the score was level after the blitz, the decisive armageddon game was played. The time control was 6 minutes for White and 5 minutes for Black, with no addition. If the game was drawn, Black is declared the winner. The colours in the armageddon games were chosen by the player who won the drawing of lots. In the final, four regular games were played instead of two, and the first (rapid) phase of tie-break would also have consisted of four games.

Ruling appeal

The final tiebreak game in the first round match between

and

Sabina-Francesca Foisor Sabina-Francesca Foişor (born August 30, 1989) is a Romanian American chess player holding the title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2008 and 2017. Foisor won the US women's championship in ...

ended in controversy. It was an armageddon blitz game in which Soćko (as White) had 6 minutes compared to 5 minutes Foisor (as Black), but White must win the game to advance to the next round whereas Black only needed to draw (or win). With time running out, a position was reached in which each player had only a

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

and a

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

, a

material A material is a matter, substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an Physical object, object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical property, physical ...

combination which is a draw under normal circumstances. Just after this, Foisor's time ran out and the arbiter Zsuzsanna Veroci ruled it a draw, meaning that Foisor would advance. Soćko immediately protested, showing a position where

checkmate Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with ) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game. In chess, the king is ...

is possible (but cannot be forced) and reminding the arbiters of the

rules of chess which state that if one player runs out of time and the opponent has the ''possibility'' of checkmate, that player loses. Soćko filed an appeal, and the Appeals Committee agreed that she was correct on the rules. The game was ruled a win for Soćko and she advanced to the next round.

Schedule

*Round 1: 29 August and 30 August, with tiebreaks on 31 August *Round 2: 1 September and 2 September, with tiebreaks on 3 September *Round 3: 4 September and 5 September, with tiebreaks on 6 September *Quarterfinals: 7 September and 8 September, with tiebreaks on 9 September *Semifinals: 10 September and 11 September, with tiebreaks on 12 September *Final: 14 September to 17 September, with tiebreaks on 18 September

Results

Final Match

Bracket

References

External links

Official websiteChessdom: World Women Chess Championship 2008 official rulesPreview at ChessBase
{{Women's World Chess Championships 2008 in chess Women's World Chess Championships Chess Championship Chess in Russia 2008 in Russia 2008 in women's sport